De Graal Speciale

Brewed by De Graal
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Brakel, Belgium

Brown with slight ruby tint...small swirling bubbles. Aroma of plum juice, ginger, tobacco, roasted malts. Rich malt taste with slight bitter chocolate, cocoa milk, carob, cherries, phenols, white pepper, liquorice. I like the De Graal and drank it many times in Belgium before it was imported. They’re unique and a tad strange, but enjoyable also.

Dark amber colour. Pale brown head. A quite mild taste. Not too much sweetness. Not very special beer.

Thanks Weep for the bottle. It just falls short, very thin in the middle and missing a lot of the caramel sweetness that should be there to round out the beer. Not bad but falls short of what it could be, nothing worth searching for.

A hazy dark brown colored beer, with a nice beige foamy head. An aroma of roasted malts. There are also some notes of coffee and sweets. The taste is fruity and malty, with some spicey accents. A good beer. It’s sadly the last brew, I bought this decembre 2007.

Appearance: dark amber to mahogany color. Medium and beige head and lasting. Aroma: caramel malts and fresh yeasty smells. These give cookie’s, vanilla’s, butterscotch’s, toffee and cacao’s aromatic reminiscences. Also, fruity smells like fig, raisins and cherries in liquor. Flavor: semi-toast and caramel malty start. Intensive reminiscences of semi-dry chocolate, milk with coffee, truffles, toffee and fruits like figs and black-raisins. Very persistent chocolate hint. Slight notes like wood and tobacco. Light warming final; toasty, yeasty and chocolaty aftertaste. Palate: medium body, silky texture and medium to high carbonation. Nice aroma and flavor, sweet but not sickly. Good chocolaty, fruity and yeasty notes. Advisable beer.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy/fizzy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, caramel, cookie), with notes of bubble gum, orange peel, clove, alcohol. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively/fizzy carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. Not much to entice, pretty boring.

750 ml brown bottle from Liquid Solutions. BBE 06/2009. Slow gusher tried to escape the bottle when the cap came off. Interesting almost cola notes along with dark fruit and roasted malt. Hazy rubyish color with a tan head that rapidly flattened. More than full bodied with creamy carbonation. Flavor is a little brown fruit, darkish malt, lightly spicy, still some persisting cola, very light touch of funk. Seems a bit thinner than I first thought. The cola begins to seem perhaps chocolate. The finish is smooth, with a touch of brown roasted malt, and a wee bit of bitter. There’s a lot going on in this one, but it’s not at the highest end of complexity. Just a very good ale.

750 ml. brown champagne bottle. No freshness date seen. Poured out a deep amber color, with a sticky tan head. Aromas are cocoa powder, roasted espresso beans, some sulfurous yeast. Flavors are of cocoa powder, roasted coffee, not much else. Fairly one dimensional.